Utah Seller Disclosure Requirements: What Home Sellers Must Reveal

· ✓ Last verified Oct 5, 2026 · March 8, 2026 · by AskDoss Editorial Team ·Home Selling · 8 min read

No section of Utah’s real estate title, Title 57, requires a home seller to fill out a general condition disclosure form. The duty comes from case law, restated in Mitchell v. Christensen, 2001 UT 80: a seller must reveal known defects that a buyer could not find with reasonable care. When the parties sign the state-approved Real Estate Purchase Contract (REPC), its Section 7 adds a written disclosure due by a date they choose.

Three narrow statutes sit on top of that: stigmatized property, meth contamination, and a 2026 rule on public infrastructure district assessments.

Mitchell v. Christensen: a leaking pool and the duty to speak

Dorann Mitchell bought a Utah home with a backyard pool. She inspected it herself, and a professional inspector found nothing. The leaks showed up after closing. The Utah Supreme Court set out the rule in paragraph 11: “A seller of realty is not obligated to reveal all that he or she knows about the property involved.” The duty to disclose “exists only where a defect is ‘not discoverable by reasonable care.'” If reasonable care would have found the defect, “the doctrine of caveat emptor prevails and precludes recovery by the vendee.”

For a fraudulent nondisclosure claim, the buyer has to show “(1) that the nondisclosed information is material, (2) that the nondisclosed information is known to the party failing to disclose, and (3) that there is a legal duty to communicate” (¶9). On reasonable care, the court looked to other states’ courts: the question is whether the defect “would be apparent to ordinary prudent persons with like experience,” not to a construction expert (¶12). Because her own inspections and a professional one had missed the leaks, the sellers had “a legal duty to disclose the leaks,” provided the trial court found on remand that they knew about them (¶16). The court added that an expert inspection is sometimes required: “under certain circumstances, a reasonably prudent buyer should be put on notice that a possible defect exists” (¶13).

The written disclosure lives in the REPC, not in statute

Utah Code § 61-2f-306(1) says that, “Except as provided in Subsection (2),” a real estate licensee “may fill out only those legal forms approved by the commission and the attorney general, and those forms provided by statute.” Subsection (2)(b) lets a licensee also fill out “real estate forms prepared by legal counsel of the buyer, seller, lessor, or lessee,” so an agent-handled sale can run on a lawyer-drafted contract instead. The same subsection lets a principal broker, or a broker the principal broker designates, fill out “any documents associated with the closing,” and, where the commission and the attorney general “have not approved a specific form for the transaction,” lets a licensee use forms “prepared by any legal counsel, including legal counsel retained by the brokerage.” The Real Estate Purchase Contract (REPC) on the Division of Real Estate’s list carries the line “THIS FORM APPROVED BY THE UTAH REAL ESTATE COMMISSION AND THE OFFICE OF THE UTAH ATTORNEY GENERAL, EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 4, 2024.”

Under Section 7, “No later than the Seller Disclosure Deadline referenced in Section 24(a),” the seller hands over a package, items (a) through (l):

  • “a written Seller property condition disclosure for the Property, completed, signed and dated by Seller”;
  • the lead-based paint disclosure, “only if the Property was built prior to 1978”;
  • the Commitment for Title Insurance described in Section 6.1;
  • any CC&Rs, rules and regulations affecting the property;
  • the HOA’s latest minutes, budget and financial statement, “if any”;
  • any long-term lease not expiring before closing, any short-term rental booking schedule for guest use after closing, and any property management agreement;
  • evidence of any water rights or water shares;
  • “written notice of any claims and/or conditions known to Seller relating to environmental problems and building or zoning code violations”;
  • written notice if the seller is a foreign person under FIRPTA;
  • anything else the parties specify under “Other.”

Section 10.3(a) repeats the Mitchell standard as a contract promise. The seller agrees to “disclose in writing to Buyer defects in the Property known to Seller that materially affect the value of the Property that cannot be discovered by a reasonable inspection by an ordinary prudent Buyer.” That promise survives closing.

The condition disclosure form itself is not on the Division’s list. In the list archived on December 7, 2025, the eleven state-approved documents are the REPC, its addenda (FHA/VA, seller financing, blank, title company earnest money, assumption), the buyer financial information sheet, two lead-paint documents, and an all-inclusive trust deed and note. Section 61-2f-306 is written for licensees; if you sell without one, the disclosure terms are whatever your own contract says, and the Mitchell duty applies either way.

Utah’s deadlines are dates you write in, not a day count

The REPC sets no fixed number of days for the seller disclosures. Section 24 has blanks for a Seller Disclosure Deadline, a Due Diligence Deadline, a Financing & Appraisal Deadline and a Settlement Deadline. Section 21 says “Time is of the essence,” and, unless the REPC explicitly says otherwise, performance is “absolutely required by 5:00 PM Mountain Time on the stated date.” Any count of days means calendar days, counted “beginning on the day following the event which triggers the timing requirement.”

The buyer’s exit depends on a checkbox. Sections 8.1(a) through (c) apply only if the contract is marked as conditioned on due diligence. Due diligence includes “review and approval of the contents of the Seller Disclosures.” If the buyer finds the results unacceptable, the buyer may cancel by written notice “no later than the Due Diligence Deadline,” and the earnest money is then “released to Buyer.” Instead of cancelling, the buyer can resolve the objections in writing by that same deadline. Miss the deadline without doing either, and the buyer “shall be deemed to have waived the Due Diligence Condition.” The earnest money then becomes non-refundable, except as provided in Sections 8.2(a) and 8.3(b)(i).

Where a Utah statute does speak

Murder, suicide, felony sites and HIV: no duty

Utah Code § 57-1-37 says a failure to disclose that a property “is stigmatized is not a material fact that must be disclosed.” It adds: “Neither an owner nor the owner’s agent is liable for failing to disclose that the property is stigmatized.” Section 57-1-1(8) defines stigmatized as three things:

  • “the site or suspected site of a homicide, other felony, or suicide”;
  • the home of someone infected, or suspected of being infected, with HIV or another infectious disease that the Department of Health and Human Services determines “cannot be transferred by occupancy of a dwelling place”;
  • property found contaminated and later found decontaminated by the local health department under the Illegal Drug Operations Site Reporting and Decontamination Act.

A former meth site that has not been cleaned

Utah Code § 57-27-201(1) runs the other way while contamination is current. An owner with “actual knowledge that the property is currently contaminated from the use, storage, or manufacture of methamphetamines” must disclose it in the conveyance. Under subsection (3), a court “may award a prevailing party damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney fees.” Section 57-27-202 shields a real estate licensee who is not also the owner.

Homes inside a public infrastructure district

Utah Code § 57-1-49 took effect May 6, 2026 (2026 General Session, ch. 373). In a sale of residential property within a public infrastructure district, “a seller or the seller’s representative shall ensure that the expected annual cost of the public infrastructure district’s final tax rate, as shown on the last equalized assessment rolls, is included in a disclosure document at or before closing.”

Houses built before 1978

The lead-paint duty is federal, not a Utah rule. Under 40 CFR 745.107, before the buyer is bound, the seller hands over the EPA pamphlet and discloses any known lead-based paint or hazards, and provides any records or reports available to the seller. Under 40 CFR 745.110, the buyer gets a 10-day window to test, “unless the parties mutually agree, in writing, upon a different period of time,” or can waive it in writing. Foreclosure sales are excluded (745.101). So is housing for the elderly or disabled, and any 0-bedroom dwelling, unless a child under 6 lives there or is expected to (definition of target housing, 40 CFR 745.103).

A fraud claim runs three years from discovery

Under Utah Code § 78B-2-305(1)(a)(iii), an action “for relief on the ground of fraud or mistake” must be brought within three years. Subsection (1)(d) says the claim “does not accrue until the discovery by the aggrieved party of the facts constituting the fraud or mistake.” A claim on the written contract itself, such as the Section 10.3 promise, falls under a different section: § 78B-2-309(1)(b) allows six years for an action “upon any contract, obligation, or liability founded upon an instrument in writing.” If the dispute goes to litigation or binding arbitration, Section 17 gives the prevailing party “costs and reasonable attorney fees.” Fees for taking part in mediation under Section 15 are excluded. That fee rule comes from the contract, not a statute. Agents answer separately: Utah Code § 61-2f-401(1) makes “a substantial misrepresentation” grounds for license discipline.

Utah seller disclosure questions

Can I sell my Utah house as-is?

Yes, but “as-is” doesn’t cancel the duty to disclose. REPC Section 10.2(a) has the buyer accept the property “in its ‘As-Is’ condition without expressed or implied warranties of any kind.” Section 10.3(a) still binds the seller to disclose known defects a reasonable inspection would not reveal. More on that trade-off is in our as-is selling guide.

There was a murder or suicide in the house. Do I have to say so?

No. Under § 57-1-37, a homicide, other felony or suicide site is “stigmatized,” and neither you nor your agent is liable for staying silent about it. A property you actually know is currently contaminated by methamphetamine is different: § 57-27-201 requires disclosure.

My buyer’s inspector missed a defect I knew about. Am I covered?

Not if nothing put the buyer on notice. In Mitchell, the buyer’s own inspections and a professional inspection missed the pool leaks, and the court held that the sellers had a duty to disclose them, assuming they knew, because nothing in the record showed “that an ordinary prudent buyer would have been put on notice of a possible defect” (¶16). The court also said that “under certain circumstances, a reasonably prudent buyer should be put on notice that a possible defect exists,” and then further inquiry or an expert inspection is expected (¶13). Attach your own repair records and the inspection reports you already have to the disclosure.

Can the buyer back out after reading my disclosure?

Under the REPC, the exit tied to the seller disclosures lasts until the Due Diligence Deadline the two of you wrote into Section 24(b), and it exists only if the due-diligence box is checked. The appraisal and financing conditions in Sections 8.2 and 8.3 are tied to the Financing & Appraisal Deadline in Section 24(c), and the federal lead testing window for a pre-1978 home is separate.

More Utah and neighboring-state guides

Primary sources: Utah Code § 57-1-37, § 57-27-201, § 57-1-49, § 78B-2-305, § 78B-2-309, the state-approved REPC, and 40 CFR part 745, subpart F.

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